“COMIC CON”PACKED WITH SPIRIT

“COMIC CON”PACKED WITH SPIRIT

Refusing to go deep, to analyze why normally normal people will secretly obsess about their favorite superhero, diligent documentarian Morgan Spurlock (“Super Size Me”) celebrates their obsession instead in “Comic Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope,” now playing at the Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway Blvd.

Traveling to the annual (since 1970) San Diego comic book convention in 2010, Spurlock was more interested in recreating the spirit of this convention full of  all-white storm troopers, black Darth Vaders,  green Hulks and bevies of Princess Leias along with vampires from every possible century and way far-out aliens of extreme origins.

For the truly devoted, dressing up as their single twisted heart’s desire becomes as necessary as breath itself.

But if you’ve ever been fluent in Klingon or wondered about Jabba the Hutt’s social life, you already understand. “Comic Con” is for the people who understand.

Spurlock puts you in good company with such comic culture celebs as Frank Miller, Matt Groening, Stan Lee (of course) and such fellow travelers as Kevin Smith, Joss Whedon, Guillermo del Toro, Seth Rogen and Kenneth Branagh. Lots of other famous folks are caught attending the comic con and receive a few seconds of screen time.

But the movie clearly belongs to the fans. Spurlock (who is never seen in this one) selects five different ordinary people representing five different genres of fandom. There is the gray-haired ponytail comic book dealer, the budding comic book artist, the young fashion designer whose costumes are wonderfully imaginative, one hopelessly obsessed collector of superhero action figures and one irresistibly sweet nerd couple who can’t think of anything more romantic than being married at the comic con.

Lurking in the background are some Spurlockian insights such as noting how the comic con isn’t even about comic books anymore. It is all about big companies in the promotion business who want to sell mountains of merchandise to helplessly vulnerable fans.

There are plenty of quick bursts of nerd behavior, as well, presented more like anthropological observations of curious cultural practices like you would expect in a National Geographic piece on some remote rain forest tribe.

But mostly “Comic Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope” (did you catch the “Star Wars” reference?) presents a bonding experience for all who believe in the magic of stories from lands where imagination is free to stretch farther than those authoritarians in adult clothing can ever imagine.